Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar

talkiNG aBoUt ChaNGe, NeW SitUatioNS, aNd ChaNGiNG SitUatioNS 38.2 38.1.3 actions that continue into the future: double 了 le sen ...

indicating change over time 38.3 No sentence final 了 le Sentence final 了 le 汽油很贵。 汽油很贵了。 汽油很貴。 汽油很貴了。 Qìyóu hěn guì. Qìyóu hěn g ...

talkiNG aBoUt ChaNGe, NeW SitUatioNS, aNd ChaNGiNG SitUatioNS 38.4 越來越 yuè lái yuè can be used to express negative situations. 我 ...

Nouns and verbs that express change 38.4 Verbs 变/變 biàn ‘change’ [does not take an object] 情况变了。 情況變了。 Qíngkuàng biàn le. The ci ...

talkiNG aBoUt ChaNGe, NeW SitUatioNS, aNd ChaNGiNG SitUatioNS 38.4 改正 gǎizhèng ‘correct, rectify’ 请你改正我的错误。 請你改正我的錯誤。 Qǐng nǐ gǎ ...

39 Talking about duration and frequency When we talk about duration, we can specify the length of an action (‘we walked for an h ...

talkiNG aBoUt dUratioN aNd FreqUeNCy 39.1 我等了他三个小时了。 我等了他三個小時了。 Wǒ děng le tā sān gè xiǎoshí le. I’ve been waiting for him for t ...

Specifying the length of an action with a duration phrase 39.1 Pattern 4: object noun phrase, verb + duration The object noun ph ...

talkiNG aBoUt dUratioN aNd FreqUeNCy 39.2 他三年没有抽烟。 他三年沒有抽煙。 Tā sān nián méi yǒu chōu yān. He hasn’t smoked for three years. 39.2 ...

indicating the ongoing duration of a background event 39.3 她的脸红着呢。( AV ) 她的臉紅著呢。 Tā de liǎn hóngzhe ne. Her face is red. (Not ‘H ...

talkiNG aBoUt dUratioN aNd FreqUeNCy 39.4 我们喝着咖啡谈话。 我們喝著咖啡談話。 Wǒmen hēzhe kāfēi tán huà. We talked while drinking coffee. (‘drin ...

indicating frequency 39.4 Pattern 2: verb + frequency + object noun phrase The frequency expression can occur between the verb a ...

40 expressing additional information Mandarin uses the following expressions to provide additional information. 40.1 也 yG ‘also’ ...

而 ér ‘and, but’ 40.6 还/還 hái is also used to indicate the continuation of a situation. 他还在这儿。 他還在這兒。 Tā hái zài zhèr. He is stil ...

exPreSSiNG additioNal iNFormatioN 40.10 40.7 和 hé and 跟 gBn ‘and’ 和 hé and 跟 gēn are conjunctions, and they are identical in mea ...

另外 lìngwài ‘in addition,’ ‘(an)other’ 40.11 The phrase that occurs between 除了 chúle and 以外 yǐwài can be a subject noun phrase, a ...

41 expressing contrast 41.1 Expressing contrast with paired connecting words Mandarin uses the following paired connecting words ...

adverbs that indicate contrast 41.2 我哥哥虽然已经三十岁了可是还没结婚。 我哥哥雖然已經三十歲了可是還沒結婚。 Wǒ gēge suīrán yǐjing sānshí suì le kěshì hái méi jiéh ...

exPreSSiNG CoNtraSt 41.2 他很有钱，我却不愿意嫁给他。 他很有錢，我卻不願意嫁給他。 Tā hěn yǒuqián, wǒ què bù yuànyi jiàgěi tā. He is rich, but I am still no ...

qualifying a statement with an adjectival verb or stative verb 41.3 你们是好朋友，看到他做错了就应该跟他说。反过来，如果不跟他说就不是真正的 朋友了。 你們是好朋友，看到他做錯了就應該跟他 ...